Ronald Davenport

I had to mention this case. I just had to.

I knew a Ronnie Davenport growing up. His brother, Tommy, was one of my contemporaries and best buddies. The Davenports I knew as a boy were all the most clever and interesting people. Ronnie, as I recall, was into short-wave radio, among other things. This was back before cell phones --- even before a lot of people had land-line telephones or TVs. I was always way impressed with Ronnie talking on that radio with people all around the world. It reminds me of the opening scene of the movie Contact. Of course Ronnie was no Jodie Foster and wasn't trying to contact a deceased parent. His parents were very much alive.

Anyway, the guy in this case couldn't be Ronnie from my boyhood. No way.

Ronald Davenport (of the case) faced the following proposals for more tax and penalties:

The Judge opined:

Petitioner is no stranger to the Court. The following is petitioner's history in this Court:

Well, I won't bore you with the details --- if you want them you can just read the opinion --- other than to say Ronnie did not cooperate with IRS and lost his case. He looks like the typical tax protestor, making silly, frivolous arguments that won't fly.

Two Tuesday Memo Decisions

The Tax Court issued two memorandum opinions today. One involves the determination that Linda Bruen was an innocent spouse, even though that terminology always seems like an oxymoron to me. The other one has to do with the nature of income from a cashed-in life insurance policy that the Barr couple received and the accuracy penalty the government said was attributable to them not properly reporting the nature of such incom.

What's in a Name?

Peter M. Comensoli challenged the IRS in Tax Court. He was represented by Matthew S. DePerno. Alexandra E. Nicholaides represented the IRS. The IRS wanted to use its lien and levy powers to collect some taxes from Peter. Peter didn't want that to happen. The judge was named Goeke --- I didn't look up the rest of his name. Some of the players in the case were Paradym Group and A. Adonu Idahosa (makes me wonder what the "A." stands for). Symphony Financial Services was a player as was TCF Leasing, Inc. So was Back Porch Workout. Some of the action took place in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

I'm wreddyornot. Who are you?

Laughing Out Loud

These lines from a tax decision struck me funny. "Anthony Oropeza earned wages in 2002 and 2003 but reported zero income and zero tax liabilities because, he wrote in attachments to the returns, his income was not 'income' in the 'constitutional' sense. Mr. Oropeza’s position is, in a word, 'frivolous.' Just like we held it was the last time he was in Tax Court."

Heather Moore: ALMA vs. Maia

Heather Moore was gracious enough to let me read her new novel, ALMA, and I am glad I did. I haven't read too much fiction for her intended audience, so this was somewhat new for me. I recommend it to anyone interested in having the life of Alma the Elder from the BOOK OF MORMON more fleshed out. I also recommend it to anyone otherwise interested in reading fast-paced fiction involving elements of romance, friendship, and religious devotion.

For me, the book ALMA is misnamed, though.

Its predominant character, for me, is Maia, wife of the malevolent King Noah, the chief, if subtle, romantic hero, or, if you will, romantic interest, in the novel. Maia's story is much more compelling than Alma's; in fact, Maia's story is gripping enough for me to read the entire book despite any other defects, such as why Moore starts out in Amulon's point-of-view: "Amulon stared at the king's red face," she writes in her opening line, "wondering if he'd ever hated a man more."

Now that's a nice, strong, and potent sentence (although I couldn't help smiling, and having the author's name so clearly in mind, as I read, " . . . a man MoOre.") And there's no question but that Amulon lives up to that first characterization of him, and even finds a man to hate greater than he hates the king with the red face. But, I ask, where are Alma and Maia in these first few pages? They are reference material. I don't know if I've ever started a published novel in the antagonist's point-of-view with the protagonist in the background. Do you recall any?

Well, for me, it was disturbing. In analyzing it, I couldn't help thinking of some favorite characters: "My suffering left me sad and gloomy," says protagonist Pi Patel from LIFE OF PI; "When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow," says Scout from TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD. And THE ROAD starts out, "When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him. " It is clearly in the protagonist's point-of-view. Even Orson Scott Card's SARAH --- not that it's a favorite of mine, but it does inhabit a similar genre --- starts: "Sarai was ten years old when she saw him first."

Anyway, this Amulon character is, at the outset of the novel, a high priest in King Noah's court, an old friend of Alma's before Alma "got religion." Although, to be accurate, it's actually before Alma gets "true" religion, for Alma had been a high priest in the religious order in the king's court already. So, in its essence, the story is the juxtaposition of orthodoxy and apostasy, with Amulon serving as the prototype for the one, and Alma as the ideal for the other.

It seemed that the main characters in the novel --- Alma and Amulon, in particular, --- were drawn so sweetly good and grotesquely bad, without much (any?) ambiguity at all; that there were no real struggles with temptation or any need for repentance. Their minds were made up; they were where they were and what they had become, and it seemed there was little or no chance for them to change. Even if characters always chose right . . . or wrong --- And that just doesn't happen, does it? --- it seems some struggle with temptation to do evil or desire to repent ought to be evident, and that struggle ought to be conveyed in a work of fiction. Even prophets admit failings, weaknesses. But Alma is " . . . inside his soul . . . truly free. He was true to his convictions, his faith, his Lord. His increasing burdens were made light . . ." From outset to the end, it seemed to me.

Whether or not one accepts the BOOK OF MORMON as a historical document --- and there are adherents of the Mormon faith who don't or who place some limitations on it --- this admixture of what is clearly fiction with the chronologies and language from Mormon scripture is an interesting, and at times compelling, phenomenon. I've read Diamant's THE RED TENT, which is based upon Old Testament characters, and enjoyed it very much, but, for me, reading a character out the BOOK OF MORMON, seemed a uniquely new and exciting adventure. Of course, such an undertaking is nothing new to Moore , who has already written about ABINADI from the BOOK OF MORMON, winning, I see, various awards within a growing audience for doing so.

Now, Moore does a great job fleshing out the basic narrative of Alma and his contemporaries in her novel, using a cast of other interesting characters: Helam and Raquel, King Noah, Amulon, Jachin and Lael, Gideon, and, especially, Maia. She does so using both animate and inanimate characteristics from her source material, making the story more interesting and forceful than the original text. Readers --- at least this one --- are less likely to fall asleep or get bored reading this kind of story, where they can identify with and become more invested in the characters, the relationships, and the places the characters visit and experience, than when simply reading raw scriptures without any ancillary imagination --- not that people ever do that, of course. The orthodox believer will perhaps scoff and scorn, saying that the spirit works only through the original text. My experience, and it appears many others', differs.

At the end of the day, however, I felt closer to Maia than I ever did to Alma. But, like I said above, it was well worth my time and effort to read ALMA and to be obliged to consider more fully his life and story.

Why Isn't This Fraud IRS?

WILLIAM G. HALBY, a lawyer in New York for 40 years, specializing in tax law, frequented prostitutes and kept track of his visits in a journal and purchased pornography and books and magazines on sex therapy, apparently keeping decent documentary evidence of the costs. He then claimed medical expense deductions of $76,314 in 2004 and $49,203 in 2005 for these costs.

Fraud and Other Stupidity

Ron and Tricia Bell got greedy. They faced additional taxes and penalties, including ones for fraud. The Tax Court reached a decision on Wednesday.

Big bucks. Interesting story . . . well, maybe not so much. Use your imagination. Check it out if you are interested in cheats.